Irish cadets recall honor of performing at JFK funeral

(CBS
News) DUBLIN -- For a country already in shock, there was another one waiting by
the Arlington cemetery gravesite when the funeral cortege arrived: a
smart-looking military unit waiting to deliver the final salute. A
smart-looking military unit from a foreign country.

Peter McMahon and Martin Coughlan
CBS News
"Pressure was enormous, because we realized when we got there and saw all
the battery of cameras, unbelievable," Coughlan says.

They
were part of a crack unit whose duties included ceremonial rituals in their
own country. When President Kennedy visited Ireland in that year, he received a
welcome befitting the greatest-ever hero of the Irish-American diaspora.

It
was a connection the visit enhanced.

"I
wonder if there are any Kennedys in this audience. Could you hold up your
hands so I can see?" the president asked to a crowd during his trip. "Well I'm
glad to see a few cousins who didn’t catch the boat."

"People
had photographs of (Pope) John the 23rd and Kennedy together on their walls," Coughlan says.

"And
the Sacred Heart," McMahon adds.

In this Nov. 25, 1963 file photo, an Irish cadet honor guard, center rows with arms outstretched, stand in formation as the U.S. flag is lifted from the coffin of President John F. Kennedy during his funeral services.
AP
And
when JFK laid a wreath at a memorial to Ireland's fallen heroes, he was so
impressed with the cadets' solemn salute that he asked for a special film to be
made of it and sent to him.

The
cadets were told it was Jackie Kennedy who wanted the ceremony that had so
affected her husband be part of his funeral.

JFK’s funeral procession leaves the White House"You
start with a general salute first," McMahon says of the drill. "It
involves movement of the hands out slowly, like that. Out quickly and slowly
in. And then all the heads go down at the same time. So it is very emotional,
very solemn, and I think that's what maybe impressed Kennedy in the first place."

To
cadets back on the parade ground 50 years later, all that drilling seems a very
long time ago.

Asked
if they can still perform the drill, McMahon says, "I do it under my
wife's orders."

Back then,
they felt they had not only honored an American president, they had buried a
son of Ireland, too.

"We
were only very young fellows at the time," Coughlan says. "Still, it
became more and more important as years went on, and now for the 50th anniversary,
it's seriously important."